Yes. It could. Very easily. Seeing the way things are slowly escalating, it's only going to take a death to shift to full blown terrorism. Everyone will lose.Belfast was a hole, a shitty, ugly, scary hole whose residents lived their lives in fear. I cannot think of a worse outcome.
I reckon the civil unrest we are seeing in HK at present will be a teddy bears picnic compared to what it will be like if the PLA are ever imposed on Hong Kong. It's going to be like eating a never ending shit sandwich, from that point on.
As the late and great, David Bowie once sang, They'll be putting out the fire with gasoline !
I just mentioned this to a colleague the other day. The parallels are quite striking.
The IRA had at its core 150 active service members. They cost the British government hundreds of millions of Pounds and 32 years of bloodshed.
It's sickening to think of the possibilities for Hong Kong.
CE and Exco are pouring gasoline on the fire
- threatened mask law - opps that didnt work
- shut the MTR down - opps that didn't work
- next threatening to cut the internet......
West Berlin and the USSR is a better analogy.
It won't become Belfast.
But if someone dies, by police bullet / baton, I can easily see an LA 1992 type riot happening.